ABOUT TAMGROUT POTTERY :

In Morocco, during the second half of the 16 th century, the founders of the "Lazouia Naciria" religious brotherhood wanted to raise the status of the village of Tamgrout to that of a "Medina", that is to say to make it a city. They assembled the merchants and craftsmen that they had brought from Fez , a city that enjoyed widespread fame at the time as a commercial and intellectual centre. However, the project failed, and today Tamgrout is still a little village right at the end of the Draa valley, the last one before the desert. Nevertheless, there remains a celebrated library known throughout the Muslim world, as well as the descendants of two families of potters that moved there during that period. They continue to work in a handful of small workshops. They still fire the pottery with palm branches and their technique remains unchanged since the beginning. Respect for tradition is very firmly anchored in the Moroccan culture and the forms have not really changed either. (...)